Nature Notes

Heritage Motor Centre Events

The Heritage Motor Centre is home to the world's largest collection of historic British cars. The museum has over 180 vehicles on display with exciting and interactive exhibitions which uncover the story of the British motor industry from the 1890s to the present day.

Fun for visitors of all ages, with children's activities, school holiday events, interactive zones, free guided tours, outdoor activities as well as a café and gift shop.

We hope you take inspiration from our events and pay us a visit.

Sci-fi at the Movies - New Exhibition

On now until 4 September

A unique opportunity to see original artefacts, replica models and costumes from your favourite Sci-Fi movies! Including Star Wars, E.T., Harry Potter, Predator and many more.

This exciting exhibition will not only showcase some of the most popular and iconic superheroes and villains complete with weaponry and costumes but will also take you on a journey of discovery providing an amazing insight into film history, character profiles and little-known film trivia.

There is no extra charge to see the new Sci-Fi Exhibition as it is all included in our standard Museum entry fees.

For more information visit www.heritage-motor-centre.co.uk

or call 01926 641188.

Mothering Sunday

Sunday 3 April will be Mothering Sunday and we invite children

(of all ages!) to bring mothers, fostermothers, grandmothers, aunts, to our morning service at 11.15am to celebrate family life and the love, joy and fun which is shared in it.

Gaydon Village Store

The shop continues to do well and sales are increasing due in part to the popularity of our vegetable boxes. If you haven't tried one yet, you really should!

We still need more volunteers and I appeal to those who either work from home, work part time or who are semi-retired to consider if you can spare just one hour a week on a flexible basis to help out behind the counter. It really would make all the difference.

The Management Committee have decided that the AGM will take place on 20 May at 7.30pm in the village hall. Everyone is welcome to attend but only shareholders will be able to vote on agenda items. If you would like to have a say in how your shop is managed, what it stocks, when it opens and where the profits should go, please contact me and buy a share for £10. We operate a strict one share one

vote system.

I have decided to stand down as Chairman at the next AGM in order that someone with new ideas and a fresh approach can lead the Management Committee. I will of course remain as involved as ever with the shop but feel after 3 years that it is time to let someone else take the lead. Under our constitution all existing committee members have to stand down at the AGM. This means that there will be an opportunity for anyone who wants to be on committee to stand.

We will require a Chairman, a Secretary, a Treasurer, someone who can handle marketing, someone who can take over as volunteer co-ordinator and someone who can head up stock and supply. There are also two places for ordinary committee members. If you would like to know more about what is involved, please feel free to contact me

on 01926 647854.

Thank you to all our customers and volunteers for your continued support, Claire Hamm.

New Priest-in-Charge

Mike Cadwallader, our new priest in charge, who will be licensed on April 12th, has visited our villages several times on his days off to familiarise himself with the area.

He is looking forward to moving to the Dassett Magna parishes and to living and working with us here.

St Giles Toddler Group

The Toddler Group meets in Gaydon Village Hall on Thursdays from 10 o'clock to 11.30am in term time. The next meeting will be on 10 March, followed by 17 March and 7 April. For more information email StGilesToddler@aol.com

Parish Council News

Flooding Issues

Talks are taking place between landowners and the County Council regarding the installation of the Banbury Road pipe.

As we now begin to think about spring arriving and tidying up our gardens, could you keep in mind that it's really important that we keep the water ditches around Gaydon clear of hedge or tree clippings and grass cuttings?

Such debris would create blockages into the pipework that keeps the water courses flowing around Gaydon. We need to avoid ditches being filled as this causes the potential for flooding. Please would you also make your garden maintenance/groundswork contractors aware of this request.

If you know of any ditches that are filled with clippings would you contact the Clerk.

Parish Plan

There will be a meeting on Wednesday, 2nd March at 10am in the Village Hall.

A Steering Committee will be formed and we will start to put together a draft questionnaire. Stratford District Council have offered to join our second meeting to explain how they can help.

If you are able to, please come and join us.

Representatives from village groups i.e. allotments, play group, PCC, friendship club, Gaydon Village Stores and any other groups would also be very welcome.

If you want to know more or would like to be involved but can't make the meeting please call the Clerk on 641220.

Lorries over 7.5T using Pimple Lane

Thanks to District Councillor Chris Mills the Police are starting to focus on this issue.

Elections

Parish Council elections will be taking place in May. If you would like any information regarding the role of parish councillors please contact the Clerk.

Next Meeting

Annual Parish Assembly will be taking place on Thursday, 3rd March at 7.30pm in the Village Hall.

This meeting provides residents with an update on the year. It will be followed by the Ordinary Parish Council meeting.

Nature Notes

Catkins and Snowdrops

February has been a bleak month so far of leaden skies and frosts. However, after such a prolonged cold spell, the first signs of spring are here! I must first mention one of our great local spectacles: the snowdrops in Chadshunt churchyard which are dense drifts visible from the Kineton Road.

Three years ago, with the kind help of Martin Dunne, I took my countryside students to the the House where we were given thousands of bulbs which were then transferred to our own churchyard. These snowdrops are now well-established in St Giles' in Gaydon, too, although it will take years for the bulbs to "walk" or spread. Look out for them in the coming weeks!

The Snowdrop, though fragile looking, is the first wild flower to show itself - far ahead of violets, Wood Anemones and Primroses. The French name is "perce-neige" or snow-piercer. They were first recorded here in the 1770s as a wild flower and are spread easily, even by flood water and around Badger sets.

The other attractive show are catkins. The most common around here are Hazel, often known as "Lambs Tails". These are the male flowers heavy with pollen which fertilise the red female flowers. The Alder catkins form on the previous year's cones; they are maroon tipped and very attractive. These trees are widespread around the Kineton area. This is an excellent time to see the herds of Roe Deer or at least the V-shaped tracks around the local fields. I was in luck last week and saw a Hare, once a common sight.

Barn Owls and Tawny Owls nest this month and on rare sunny days I have heard Skylarks singing. A large flock of Goldfinches is once again around the village but the Waxwings and Fieldfares seem to have left last week for colder climes. The dawn is now heralded by Blackbirds and Songthrushes establishing territories. Male birds can become aggressive; I actually had to separate two contestants in my garden.

I am still awaiting word on the "lent" Milestone. The newly painted one on the Bishops Road has suffered a bit this winter and may need a restorative coat. The Milestone Society tell me that another has recently been dug up on the edge of the Fosse Way and will be restored soon.

A rather unwelcome group of Magpies seem to have arrived in Gaydon which may be bad news for our nesting song birds. They do not like human disturbance so I shall scare them off at every opportunity!

I have seen an early Violet which is pale mauve in colour so these will be the next hedgerow flowers to look out for on a walk.

Bernard Price

Mobile Library

The mobile library will be in Gaydon on Thursday 17 March.

Friendship Club

The meeting will take place on Tuesday 22 March at the home of Mrs Gay Talbot, 'Carn Iw', in Church Road.

Coffee Morning Bring and Buy

Village Hall

Saturday 12 March at 11am

All welcome!

Royal Wedding Street Party

Some of us are thinking that the impending Royal Wedding and extra bank holiday on April 29th might be a good excuse for a street party.

It could be held in Church Road on April 29 after the ceremony in London and we could have food, music, a bouncy castle etc.

If anyone is interested in helping to organise this then please come to a meeting in the Malt Shovel on Friday March 4th at 8.00pm.

Our last street party for the Queen's Golden Jubilee was a great success and over a hundred villagers turned up bearing food and drink - a good time was had by republicans and royalists alike!

There is funding available to subsidise the party. Madeleine Hill

Shipston Home Nursing

Bonhams Antiques Valuation Day

Thursday 17 March 10am-3pm

Townsend Hall, Shipston on Stour

£2 per item to value antiques and works of art

All proceeds to go to SHN; coffee/biscuits served all day; free entry; call Bonhams for more details on 01865 853640.

Gaydon Village Hall News

The hourly rate for hiring the Hall is £5.50 for residents of Gaydon and Chadshunt. It is £11 per hour for outsiders. These rates were set in June 2008 and will remain the same in 2011. They are reviewed annually. Please contact Sue Middleditch on 640695 if you would like to book the Hall.

The next meeting of the Village Hall Committee will be held on Monday 14 March.

Plant Bring and Buy Sale 14 May

Every May the regular coffee morning is transformed into a Gardeners' Treasure Trove: keen gardeners bring along their excess plants so that others less provident or green-fingered can snap them up for a trifle.

Please do bring your spare bedding and vegetable plants or any perennials that you have split up or are clearing out.

Let's have our own Seedy Saturday, too, and exchange interesting seeds with each other! All over the country, allotmenteers and gardeners hold seed-swapping events in their huts and halls on the first Saturday in February. Down in Hove town hall last month over two thousand visitors exchanged mysterious brown paper packages of hand-labelled seeds.

Gaydon's Horticultural Society fell into desuetude in the 1980s but there are plenty of Gaydon gardeners still about. The silver cups engraved with the names of those who won them are still about too. Come and see them at the next coffee morning!

Parish Plan Meeting

On Wednesday, 2nd March at 10am in the Village Hall, a Steering Committee will be formed and we will start to put together a draft questionnaire to go to villagers.

Stratford District Council have offered to join our second meeting to explain how they can help.

If you are able to come please join us at the meeting. Representatives from village groups e.g. allotments, play group, PCC, friendship club, Gaydon Village Stores and any other groups will be very welcome.

If you want to know more or would like to be involved but can't make the meeting please call the Clerk on 641220.

Neighbourhood Watch

Gaydon Report: we are continuing to experience a quiet period which we hope will continue.

Alerts: two items for your attention.

1 The Trading Standards Service has had brought to its attention telephone cold calls from an alarm sales company offering external alarms at £1.00. Residents should be aware that this sort of approach, which can be accompanied by a high pressure sales pitch, loads the cost of the alarm system on to its fitting and monitoring. This can lead to consumers purchasing unsuitable alarm systems that cost many thousands of pounds to run. If you do sign a contract in your home following an unsolicited visit, or a visit arranged following an unsolicited phone call, you have 7 days within which to cancel the contract.

For more information, visit the website: www.warwickshire.gov.uk/tradingstandards

2 In Kineton a legitimate charity collector observed a woman pick up charity bags cleared marked and labelled for the charity. She placed them in her boot and drove off. This is a criminal activity known to the Police. Theft of filled bags is a major problem costing charities millions each year.

What happens to the stolen bags?

Disposal in the UK: car boot sales, ads in newsagent windows, small ads in local newspapers, Ebay.

With organised gangs, typically the clothes go abroad by container-lorry. There have been many reports of bags of clothes intended for British charities being spotted in Eastern Europe and Africa. Often the bags have the charity logo on them.

Police are advising residents wishing to make charitable donations to take them to a local charity shop. Don't put small, high-value goods in collection bags: instead, save them up for your next visit to the town centre when you can give them to a charity shop. Some charities will arrange to collect large donations.

Shipston Home Nursing

Warwick School Wind Orchestra and Jazz Band

Friday 25 March at 7.30pm

Townsend Hall, Shipston on Stour

£10 per ticket to include glass of wine and nibbles

Call Rebecca 01608 674929

rebecca@shn-fundraising.co.uk

Church Meadow

People who walk through the meadow at the back of the church are asked to walk on the public footpath and to keep their dogs on leads. It is a privately-owned field and the right of way is clearly visible leading from one kissing gate to the other.